Consumers urged to buy nothing

This Thanksgiving season, consumers are urged to leave their wallets at home, turn off their lights, and boycott their wheels for a 24-hour period.

Buy Nothing Day is an annual event sponsored by the anti-consumerist group Adbusters urging consumers to buy nothing on Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season. Also known as Blitz Day, Black Friday is a consumer “holiday” characterized by huge retail sales and discounts for consumers, and profit spikes for corporations worldwide. Many stores open earlier than normal, and it has become common practice for consumers to camp out in parking lots overnight so as to be among the first shoppers to enter stores the next morning.

In recent years, violence and death have occurred as a result of the buying frenzy that the day creates. Last year on Black Friday, a Wal-Mart employee in Long Island, N.Y., was trampled to death by shoppers who entered the store, knocked the door off its hinges and crushed the employee beneath it. Four shoppers, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were also injured at that same location.

Adbusters Media Foundation, the sponsor of Buy Nothing Day, is a nonprofit organization self-described as “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators, and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age,” according to its Web site. The organization addresses a range of issues, from genetically modified foods to media concentration. Besides their sponsorship of Buy Nothing Day, Adbusters sponsors other social marketing campaigns such as Digital Detox Week, which urges people to “unplug” themselves from their television, laptop, iPhone, Xbox, etc. for seven days straight.

The first Buy Nothing Day was held 18 years ago and for the first few years remained a local event held in small communities worldwide. Since then, the event has expanded into a global movement, inspiring all people to buy less and live more simply. Gaining momentum in recent years as a result of the climate crisis and economy crash, Buy Nothing Day has driven people to seek out greener alternatives to unrestrained consumption.

In an attempt to increase the global support and impact of the event, Adbusters is calling for a wildcat general strike to be held on Friday, Nov. 27 in conjunction with Buy Nothing Day. A wildcat general strike is defined as a strike action consisting of a critical mass of the labor force, typically held for political, economic, ideological or class goals. Adbusters’ strike calls for participants to not only refrain from spending money, but also to refrain from using electricity, electronics, automobiles and other nonessential appliances. As stated on its Web site, Adbusters is asking people to take a part in bringing “the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt.”

From sunrise to sunset this Black Friday, people are urged to abstain en masse from normal patterns of consumption. To fill the void of not shopping, Adbusters recommends feeding “spirits and minds with a feast of subversive activities: pranks, shenanigans, credit card cut-ups, bicycle swarms, mall invasions and all manner of culture jams and creative detournements.” Sit-ins, demonstrations, passive resistance and acts of nonviolent defiance will also be held around the planet.

There are those, however, who believe that Buy Nothing Day, even when combined with the strike, will not make an impression on the population.

One student who wished to remain anonymous said, “One day is not going to make that much of an impact. This is about lifestyle choices, about changing day-to-day decisions, not just holding a day event.”

The student pointed out that the main problem with the event is that the U.S. economy is dependent on consumerism, and not buying products will ultimately hurt employees.

“The way our economy is constructed is around consumerism and capitalism,” the student said. “So when people stop buying, more people get in trouble ... If you’re not selling or making enough, you can’t employ a lot of people and that will affect the lives of many people.”

Those who are more optimistic about Buy Nothing Day will focus less on the negative impacts and more on the benefits that it can have on an individual level.

“If we interpret this day as a stunt that will turn our attention to unsustainable consumption, that’s great,” said Ilan Noy, associate professor of economics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. “Many in the developing world are consuming way too much, and that conspicuous consumption is not making them any happier.”

Some students, although skeptical about the day’s overall net effect, agree that they will partake in the cause, if only for symbolic significance.

“I don’t think it’s going to make that big of an impact on the environment,” student Gerald Boyer said, “but if attacking capitalism culture is your thing, then not shopping on the day when people shop the most is very political.”

Pomai Kalama, another student, echoes this sentiment, believing that Buy Nothing Day is more important on the individual level.

“If it is there to help not only the economy, but the environment, then I would definitely support it and do what I can,” Kalama said.

However, he has his doubts about the event, citing the lack of advertising and public awareness of the event as a detriment to the cause.

“I haven’t heard or seen anything about Buy Nothing Day – not on the radio or on the Internet,” Kalama said. “For advertising, you’d have to invest a lot to get the word around. Especially in Hawai‘i, it will be hard for this to work ... because of all the tourism and military.”

Noy addresses an additional problem with the event, citing the unequal impact that capitalism and Buy Nothing Day have on societies worldwide.

“The biggest global problem we have is not too much consumption but rather that consumption is distributed unequally,” he said. “I would much rather see a day that tries to convince people to ‘give some of their plentiful resources to Africa’ than to convince them to consume less.”

Going natural and relying on what one already has also appears to be the modus operandi for some students. One student, Luka Mossman, has decided to avoid shopping centers altogether and head for the outdoors.

“What am I going to do on Black Friday? I’m going camping,” Mossman said. “Just take my pole and my truck, catch some fish and I’m good.”